Finance Minister Zdravko Maric commented on Thursday on the share of public debt in GDP and said that during the government's last term it decreased by 12 percentage points.

At the end of 2019 it was 72.8%, or HRK 292 billion. Maric said that from 2015 to 2019 the government had managed not only to decrease the share of public debt in GDP but also to maintain the public debt in nominal terms at approximately the same level as in 2015.

The impact of the coronavirus epidemic is visible in the one-time increase in the share of public debt in GDP this year, so it is expected that the share will be 87.3% at the end of 2020.

“If we hadn’t been doing what we have been doing for the past four years, the upward trend in public debt would have continued. Croatia would today have a public debt at above 100% of GDP, and that would not only have a significant effect on our credit rating, but the conditions of borrowing and the price of capital, as well as its availability, would be in quesiton,” Maric said.

Despite the shock and the effect of COVID, with the proposed 2021 budget and projections, the government is ensuring the continued sustainability of public finances, the minister said.

He said that in the next two years it was estimated that the share of public debt in GDP would drop by an average 2 pp year-on-year, in 2021 to 85.3%, in 2022 to 83.4% and in 2023 to 81.2% of GDP.

(€1 = HRK 7.5)